New pictures transmitted by the device “New Horizons”, the astronomers showed bright spot near one of the poles of Pluto. Scientists believe that this is a sign of the ice cap, but rather it will be able to find out just as you approach the probe to dwarf planet.
The pictures were taken in the period between 12-18 April 2015 at a distance of 113 million kilometers and demonstrated not only Pluto and its largest moon, Charon.
However, the main attention was paid to scientists Pluto. Its surface is a patchwork of light and dark areas of a diameter of several hundred kilometers. One of the polar regions, regardless of the rotation of the dwarf planet is very bright. Astronomers suggest that is responsible for this ice cap, actively reflect sunlight. However, while this is only a very shaky assumption.
“rarely seen in the pictures of the planets of the solar system such a low resolution so obvious surface features. We do not know whether to answer for the bright and dark areas of geological, topographical features, or composition of the surface, “- said Alan Stern (Alan Stern), a leading researcher of the New Horizons mission, the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder (Southwest Research Institute in Boulder).
Let’s add, that earlier the same quilt demonstrated pictures of the telescope “Hubble”, but even this cosmic monster is unable to provide a clear picture.
Now the probe New Horizons is located at a distance of 90 million kilometers and continues to approach the dwarf planet rendezvous is scheduled for July 2015.
In the future, new research and measurements will enable to find out what exactly is the polar cap Pluto. While it is supposed that the surface comprises a dwarf planet frozen nitrogen, carbon monoxide and methane. Some compounds may evaporate and form a thin atmosphere.
The site of the journal Nature adds that the New Horizons mission specialists upload photos to on-board cameras 48 hours after their delivery to Earth. At the same time, scientists working in the mission “Rosetta” comet and study Churyumov-Gerasimenko, provide very limited access to the captured photos. Yesterday, April 29, 2015, the network has photos of one of the chambers of the probe, dated August-sentyabrёm 2014.
No comments:
Post a Comment